Mike Reader | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Northampton South | |
Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Andrew Lewer |
Personal details | |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Mike Reader is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Northampton South since 2024. He gained the seat from Andrew Lewer, a Conservative.[1]
Reader studied civil engineering, graduating from Loughborough University in 2007 and then gaining an MSc at Coventry University in 2009. He worked at construction consultancy Pick Everard for 10 years.[2] While there, he helped found Perfect Circle, a joint venture with Gleeds and Aecom which created 500 jobs in the East Midlands.[2] He later told Construction News that his political ambitions were sparked while working for Pick Everard during the 2010–2015 Conservative-led coalition government: "I could see first-hand what public sector cuts meant on the ground, in terms of fixing schools with leaky roofs, repurposing hospitals and road and infrastructure maintenance".[3]
In 2017, he then joined the Mace construction business,[4] where he worked for over six years.[2] At Mace during the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked on a NHS Nightingale project as the construction team's operations director.[2]
Selected to contest the Northampton South seat in March 2023,[5] Reader took a sabbatical from his job at Mace during the 2024 general election campaign; he said he expected to leave Mace if he was elected.[2]